What can community organizations, like CADCA coalitions, do to help remove barriers to treatment?
A. CADCA coalitions can help make information about facilitated self change and counseling widely available. They can put pressure on employers to make sure that screening and brief intervention, as well as medications for alcohol dependence, are covered in insurance plans. They can implement city-wide awareness campaigns about what heavy drinking is and where to get help. They can help make doctors aware of the new codes available from Medicare that can be used to get paid for screening and intervention services. It’s also important that coalitions work with their state governments and insurance companies to ensure that they accept the new Medicare codes, so that doctors in their states can use them. I also recommend that they make sure every primary care doctor and pediatrician in town has a copy of the NIAAA’s updated Clinicians Guide, Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much, which is available at www.niaaa.nih.gov. Dr. Mark Willenbring is the Director of the Division of Treatment and R
